Support The Way Forward for Cooper Union (Hint: It's not tuition)

Last October, newly appointed Cooper Union President Jamshed Bharucha announced that his administration was considering charging tuition for the first time in the main programs. Faculty, alumni, students, staff and friends signed this petition and organized community summits, public brainstorming sessions and walkouts to call on President Bharucha to make saving Cooper Union without tuition his #1 priority.

Last April, Friends of Cooper Union published The Way Forward, a document compiling six months of work from the community thinking through alternative solutions to keeping the institution solvent while preserving the all scholarship. Nearly 1,000 community members signed a separate petition in support of this plan.

Because of our action, President Bharucha promised us that tuition would be a "last resort." Yet in the interim the President has not taken action consistent with this promise. He has failed to seriously address the skyrocketing expenses responsible for the deficit scenario, and has instead focused on "reinventing" Cooper Union with a high-risk, high-cost plan to create tuition-based graduate programs - despite the community's objections that it is impossible to "grow" your way out of a crisis.

Tell Cooper Union's President that there are better solutions. Share this petition, and visit http://friendsofcooperunion.org to review our ten-point plan. If you support it, address a message to the Trustees expressing your support and send it to info@friendsofcooperunion.org. We will pass your message of support along to the Trustees.

Letter to

Cooper Union PresidentJamshed Bharucha

Board of Trustees Chairman, Cooper UnionMark Epstein

Six months ago, you promised “tuition was a last resort.” Thankfully, there are a range of solutions that demonstrate tuition is unnecessary. The initiatives in The Way Forward outline both first steps and a long-term strategy for sustaining Cooper Union, rebuilding its ties to the community and keeping it at the forefront of academic excellence-- all while preserving its historic mission of free education. Peter Cooper's mission is more necessary now than ever: Let's keep Cooper Union as free as air and water.